Knights survive another close encounter

NEWINGTON  The magical mystery playoff tour continued Saturday for the Notre Dame-West Haven hockey team. But none of the players and coaches seemed too thrilled about it.

Sean Patrick Bowley

Published
12:00 am EST, Sunday, March 7, 2004

Thanks to an early goal by Emmet Wright, a late goal by Rick Mut and a solid performance from sophomore goaltender Randy Wolcott, the 13th-seeded Green Knights survived yet another close playoff encounter by defeating fifth-seeded Glastonbury 2-0 in the Division I quarterfinals at the Connecticut Skating Center.

Even though the Green Knights advanced to the Division I semifinals for the third time in four years, the only postgame celebration came from the overwhelmingly large and boisterous Notre Dame student section.

None of the Notre Dame players looked extremely happy as they filed out of the building. Coach Bill Gerosa didnt even crack a smile.

The way Gerosa saw it, the Green Knights didnt take Glastonbury seriously enough and nearly paid for it.

"We were a bit too jovial on the bus ride here," Gerosa said. "They didnt heed my warning about good teams advancing in the playoffs. I told them before the game, Glastonbury went to the Division 2 semifinals at Yale two years ago, they won the Division 2 championship last year, and they were no slouch.

"Im happy we won, Im just not pleased with the way we played mentally. Were going to fix that. We have to fix that before Tuesday or were going to get run out of Yale rink by whomever we play."

Notre Dame will play New Canaan Tuesday in the semifinals at Yales Ingalls Rink.

Indeed, the Warhawks, in their first season playing in Division 1, gave Notre Dame everything it could handle in the quarterfinals.

Naturally, the performance pleased Glastonbury coach Ken Barse, whose team wrapped up its first Division 1 season with a 16-5-1 record."

"We knew Notre Dame was going to bring their big crowd, we knew they were a big, physical team ," Barse said. "We knew if we threw everything we had at them, wed be in it in the third period. That was our game plan."

And thats how the game played out. Notre Dame scored just 4 minutes, 57 seconds into the game when Wright took a pass from Mike Mullally, broke in and pushed a shot past DuBois left side.

But that was it until the end of the game. After surviving an onslaught of 16 Notre Dame shots in the second period, Glastonbury stepped up its game in the third, but it just couldnt get the tying goal.

Wolcott, who has started in goal for Notre Dame since a late-season loss to Fairfield Prep, stopped consecutive point-blank shots by Ryan Fayed, Greg Kaliszewski and Tory Fortin in the third period.

"Randys been playing great," Mut said. "Were hoping he can keep it up."

Glastonburys best chance to tie the score, however, went wasted when freshman Chase Celibertis shot at a wide-open net missed left.

"We had our opportunities, but, unfortunately, we couldnt drop one in," Barse said. "If you have to lose, this is the way to end the season in a hard-fought game like that. This could have gone either way."

Notre Dame finally put Glastonbury away when Wolcott grabbed a clearing pass and found John Coutts along the right boards while Glastonbury was in the middle of a line shift. DuBois stopped Coutts shot, but Mut grabbed the rebound and scored with 1:49 remaining.

"Their goalie played great. We just had to keep shooting, keep shooting and eventually it would go in," Mut said. "We came out with a win, thats all that matters."